Shares of Strategy Inc., Coinbase Global Inc., Circle Internet Group Inc. and Galaxy Digital Inc. each gained at least 5% in intraday trading Thursday. The advance followed Wednesday's gains.
Two things are driving the move. First, Trump met with top crypto executives and asked lawmakers to pass digital-asset market laws. He also said the CFTC is working to get Hyperliquid into the US.
Second, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is trying to lower Treasury yields by increasing purchases of longer-dated debt. This reduces the dollar's strength, and a softer dollar tends to lift Bitcoin by sparking concerns about currency devaluation. When the dollar falls, assets priced in dollars, like Bitcoin, often rise.
The industry-supported market-structure bill, called the Clarity Act, is still stuck in the Senate. A vote to move it forward is scheduled for Sept. 15, giving it a chance to pass before November's elections. If it passes, it would create a clear set of rules for digital assets, something the industry has never had.
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On Tuesday, the SEC proposed letting some digital assets skip security-registration filings. That is a big deal because it removes a major hurdle for tokens.
Clear Street analyst Owen Lau said investors had priced in a very low chance of Clarity Act passage. "It's not like people that bought suddenly think that we have a very high chance of the passage of the Clarity Act," he said. "It's more like the market pricing such a low probability, but this news could swing the probability."
The push for digital-asset rules comes after years of regulatory uncertainty. The industry has long argued that inconsistent guidelines have kept many institutional investors on the sidelines, and any sign of progress tends to move markets.
Hyperliquid, which holds tokens traded on a perpetual-futures exchange, soared 30% Wednesday and gained as much as 7.2% Thursday after Trump suggested Hyperliquid might come to the US. That would bring more altcoin trading to American markets, which could help exchanges like Coinbase, Bullish and Circle.
Exchange stocks including Cboe Global Markets Inc., CME Group Inc. and Nasdaq Inc. fell Wednesday on the possible competition. RBC Capital Markets analyst Ashish Sabadra said companies like Cboe could launch similar perpetual-futures offerings if US rules permitted. "In our view, this regulatory momentum could meaningfully accelerate the timeline for perpetual futures to broadly launch in the US," he said.
Even with the recent gains, crypto stocks remain far from their peaks. Strategy has dropped 80%, Circle has lost 70%, Coinbase is off over 60%, and Bitcoin slid more than 40% from October through Wednesday's close. That is a reminder of how volatile this space can be.
For investors, the takeaway is simple. Regulatory clarity helps, as Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev put it: "Regulatory clarity will very much help because customers also want to know that they're protected and that the rules aren't going to shift every four or eight years." Pass or fail, the conversation is moving forward, and that could be what matters most for your portfolio.
Digital-asset laws can shift markets, but a steady, long-term investment approach often outperforms reactive trading. The recent policy momentum, while promising, does not guarantee immediate gains, and the sector's history shows sharp swings in both directions. Investors should weigh the potential for clearer rules against the inherent volatility that has defined crypto markets over the past year.
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